The Karabakh conflict remains unsettled as of 20 years ago. The lasting tension on the frontline became greater in the months of July and August this year, which caused deaths of many young people who were born after the signing of the ceasefire in 1994.

At the discussion initiated by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting and Media Center, entitled “The Situation around Karabakh Conflict and Possible Perspectives” Thomas De Waal, expert on the South Caucasus at Carnegie Endowment, Sergey Minasyan, a political scientist and Deputy Director of the Caucasus Institute, and political analyst Mark Grigoryan shared their thoughts on the issue. Shahin Rzaev, the Country Director of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting Azerbaijan office, joined the discussion via a video conference.

Thomas De Waal believes that the negotiations over the settlement of the Karabakh conflict are more formal in nature. Thus, after meetings, both sides either have patriotic rhetoric or limit themselves to reporting news only. “As they would say in France, the more things change, the more they stay the same,” Thomas De Waal described the settlement of the conflict.

Shahin Rzaev, who joined the discussion via video call, agreed with the sentiment that Azberajian’s actions are mostly patriotic rhetoric. “People in Armenian consider the war ended while the Azerbaijani side is convinced that the war is continuing and will continue until they return, as they prefer to call, the occupied territories,” said Rzaev.

Sergey Minasyan noted that a small number of people involved and informed about the conflict are largely responsible for the delay in reaching a conflict resolution. In order for both sides to reach a conflict resolution, all issues should be discussed by professionals.

Region research center conducted a research on Election Race in the Armenian Online Platforms – 2018 researching 22 Facebook pages of the political forces standing in the elections in 6 online platforms since November 1.

The years long prevailing issues in penitentiary institutions remain unsolved. This was the note struck by public group of monitors conducting supervision over RA ministry of justice penitentiary institutions on December 13 Media Center discussion.

For 25-30 years issues related to human rights violations in Armenia have been in our spotlight: Such was the notice of Larisa Alaverdyan, head of “Fighting Against Violations of Law” NGO, first Ombudsperson of Armenia on December 12 at Media Center press conference.